Just a decade ago, Oakland was setting itself up to be a hub of Bay Area film production, particularly after the success of two locally filmed Matrix sequels.

It triggered the creation of the Oakland Film Center at the former Oakland Army Base - an incubator for the array of film-related businesses essential for on-location filming: lighting, props, production services and others.

But in the ambitious drive to develop the base, the city is evicting the 32 film-related businesses from the city-owned buildings and Oakland's future as a film center is now in doubt.

The film center sits in three warehouses on the base. Hundreds work for the businesses there when films are in production, business owners say.

The city sent out 90-day eviction notices in October to the 32 businesses. Those companies say they don't know where they will go but are looking for some sort of shared space in the Bay Area.

Assistant City Manager Fred Blackwell said the film center "is an excellent example of the kind of activity we'd like to see continue in Oakland." He said his staff is actively looking for new spaces in the city for the tenants and believed they would be part of future plans for the base, which will generate some 5,000 jobs.

Nonetheless, Blackwell said the eviction notices were sent because of the urgency to develop the base. Roughly $242 million in state funding would be lost if they do not break ground by December 2013, he said.

Film Center tenants were aware of the development plans - which call for business operations to help move goods in and out of the adjacent Port of Oakland. But tenants said the 90-day eviction notice was unexpected. They thought they had at least six more months.

Blackwell said the notice was sent out now in case anyone fought the eviction.

"We don't want to get caught up in long protracted battles about the eviction so we're beyond the dates required to get the state money," Blackwell said.

Film advocates lament the evictions, which they say undermine the promise of film the city once believed in. Last year, the city also eliminated the city's one-person Film Office, which coordinated filming in the city.

At the turn of the century, the Clint Eastwood feature "True Crime" and the series "Nash Bridges" were filmed in Oakland, said Ami Zins, the film office's director for 13 years. Then came the Matrix sequels.

"Oakland was considered to be a really good role model for attracting film production," said Zins.

To emphasize the city as a destination for film, then-Mayor Jerry Brown and City Manager Robert Bobb sought to create the film center, Zins said. With so many businesses in one space, they believed they'd make it easier for those who sought to make films and commercials.

In Oakland's 2011 fiscal year, dozens of corporations shot commercials in the city including BMW, Lincoln cars, Kodak and Coors. Brad Pitt and Philip Seymour Hoffman were among those who were filmed on site - for "Moneyball" - in Oakland, Zins said.

Zins said the city's ambivalent relationship with the film industry was driven, in part, by fears over how filmmakers might portray the city. A proposed HBO series about an aging pimp, "Gentlemen of Leisure," was set in Oakland. But former Mayor Ron Dellums and council members fought it in 2008, worried that it would sully the city's reputation. Advocates said it would have an educational component and worked with sex trafficking organizations, Zins said. The series was never made.

Sean House, who owns a specialty prop and construction business (Outhouse Productions) at the Film Center, said the series of decisions by city leaders have him worried about what will happen to film in the city, which he says has an unparalleled status as a production hub for the region.

"The film industry, like any other, takes the path of least resistance," said House. "So if there's resistance, they'll go elsewhere."